Beyond Talking Fast: Why Debate Teaches More than Public Speaking

Flynn Williams | 2 min read

Most people think debate is just about giving speeches, where students trade arguments under the pressure of a timer. It’s easy to assume debate is just about becoming a better speaker, whether it be in efficiency, persuasion, or confidence. When non-debaters stumble on youtube videos of highschoolers reading at 400 words per minute, their reactions are often negative. For example, the infamous @StudiousNoodle’s comment on the 2025 TOC LD Final Round published on Youtube stands out. This particular user argued debate should not be quote “an auction to bid the most empty words to a judge.”  While most debaters accustomed with these unique norms would be quick to disagree, I would argue that this comment has some level of truth: debate isn’t just a game where the goal is to speak faster than your opponent.

Research, critical thinking, teamwork, and ideological reflexivity are some of the other important aspects of debate. Debate builds habits and becomes a huge part of high school careers, building skills that extend beyond the podium and into the classroom. 

Behind every strong speech is hours of preparation. Debaters are researchers. They dig through databases, perfect their google searching abilities, track down credible sources, and learn to compare evidence to gain a clear understanding of the topic. They also anticipate counterarguments and prepare evidence to answer them. This teaches a level of media literacy and researching ability that most people don’t acquire at all. In an age of misinformation and AI deepfakes, debate forces students to ask critical questions to ensure reliability of their evidence. When debaters are asked to research and think about arguments they otherwise wouldn’t have thought of, they are able to challenge their own assumptions about the world. Critical thinking encourages debaters to think outside the box to find new forms of critique or argumentation.

Debate teaches teamwork, too. When one sees the amount of time a team spends prepping before a tournament or topic, you can understand the highly cooperative or communicative nature of the activity, even in forms of debate that seem individualized. Take, for example, pre-round prep, where teammates from the same team can help each other find answers to arguments they’ve debated in the past, or give insight into how the person their teammate is debating answered a certain argument. Intuitively, forms of debate that require teams also build communicative or cooperative stills. Like Policy of Public Forum debate, teammates have to rigorously work together and learn how to become as efficient as possible using limited prep time while including the ideas of both debaters.

The benefits of debate, no matter its forum, extend far beyond speaking fast. Yes, debate makes you a stronger public speaker and gives you confidence. If that’s all you expect to gain or all you see from it, you’re underestimating it. Debate trains sharper thinkers, more effective researchers, better teammates, and knowledgeable citizens. Public speaking is about voice. Debate is about vision. It shapes how we think, how we collaborate, and how we see others.